Category Archives: Guests - Page 4

Carolyn Howard-Johnson: The First Great Impression (Book Proposals)

On June 4th, 2009, Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman interviewed book development and marketing guru Carolyn Howard-Johnson on the fine art of book proposal writing and why it matters. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a poet, fiction writer and is author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers as well as The Great First Impression Book Proposal: Everything You Need to Know About Selling Your Book in Twenty Minutes or Less, an Amazon Short which she calls her “49 cent wonder.” We talked about the “A” to “Z” of book proposals and how to make your unique voice shine through, we also covered other aspects including:

  • What made you write The Great First Impression Book Proposal
  • What makes this how to on book proposals different from most–other than it’s being only 49 cents?
  • What is the most important part of a book proposal?
  • What about query letters? How are they similar to proposals and different?
  • Why did you choose to use the Amazon Short format for The Great First Impression Book Proposal
Carolyn Howard-Johnson speaks on Utah’s culture, tolerance and book promotion and editing and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide. She is an instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program and her how-to book, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t was named USA Book News’ “Best Professional Book 2004.” and the Irwin Award. Her The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success also won a nod from USA Book News and won Readers’ Views Literary Award. Her marketing campaign for that book won the marketing award from New Generation Indie Book Awards.Carolyn loves to travel and has studied at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Hertzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles University, Prague. She admits to carrying a pen and journal with her wherever she goes. Her website is: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.comT

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Irene Watson – Targeting Your Website Marketing to Personas

On May 14th, 2009 Victor R. Volkman and Tyler Tichelaar spoke with Internet marketing entrepreneur Irene Watson on how to effectively engage the persona (or archetype) of the visitors to your website. She has been effective in online marketing since 2004, learning and implementing various techniques to promote her books and businesses. We talked about

  • The importance of website presence,
  • Making the site about your visitor (not you),
  • Designing your site to fit a specific purpose and pattern of interaction, and
  • Tailoring your site to improve response to specific Myers-Briggs typed personas.
Irene Watson is the managing editor of Reader Views, Reader Views Kids, and Inside Scoop Live. She also maintains BloggingAuthors.com. She is the author of The Sitting Swing: Finding Wisdom to Know the Difference, and co-editor of A Story That Must Be Told and Authors Access: 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers.During this interview, we mentioned the following essential books:

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Edna Washington – What Every Author Must Know About Accounting

On May 8, 2009 Victor R. Volkman and Tyler R. Tichelaar spoke with computer training and accounting expert Edna Washington of Washington Consultants, LLC.  We previously recorded Edna at the 2008 Motown Writer’s Conference but response was so great that we invited her on for a full 40 minutes of Q&A about business records, taxes, and structuring your company. Edna Washington is a workshop presenter and has over 15 years accounting and computer experience. We grilled her on a variety of common startup questions incuding:

  • Do I want to be a proprietor or a corporation?
  • How do I setup my business so it is properly recognized?
  • How can I amortize a large book printing over several years?
  • Do I need QuickBooks to manage by business?
  • What are 1099s and when do I give or receive them?
  • How can I draw money from the business?
  • What is the “home office” expense and can I claim it?
  • What types of deductions are commonly missed by authors?
Edna Washington
Edna is the owner of Washington Consultants, LLC in Detroit, Michigan. She attended University of Missouri at St. Louis. Washington Consultants provides accounting and computer services to small businesses. They also offer computer skills training for youth and adults. Mrs. Washington also volunteers with youth organizations to help young people succeed in life. She believes in giving back to her community. She believes that our youth just need to be encouraged and shown that there is a world to be conquered

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Michelle Howe – Turn Web Browsers into Book Buyers

On April 22nd, 2009 Victor R. Volkman and Tyler Tichelaar spoke with author and marketing guru Michelle Howe. A former university professor, Michelle consults with companies to assist them in effectively positioning their online marketing message to match their offline branding. Michelle clarified key points in our thinking including:

  • How website writing is different than offline (“brochure”) writing
  • How and why websites fail to gather leads, the importance of capture
  • How to make an impact in the first four seconds, before people click away and go elsewhere
  • Creating valuable content that keeps people coming back and builds rapport
  • New technologies for managing the conversation with your customers automatically
Michelle How
Michelle Howe, MBA, owner of Internet Word Magic, is an expert in search engine optimized copywriting for websites and the author of the award winning book, Turn Browsers into Buyers: Secrets for Turning an Internet Profit.

She consults with companies to assist them in effectively positioning their online marketing message to match their offline branding. Her E-Mail Productivity System training is a customized training program that covers the issues of business writing, e-mail etiquette, e-mail security and the liabilities of e-mail.

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